Trajectory of ARAKAWA Shusaku : From Kan ῌ Oke ´ ῌ Coffin ῍ to the Rever- sible Destiny Lofts
Fumi TSUKAHARA
In memory of our ARAKAWA, who passed away May+3, ,*+* in New York City at the age of1-.
Foreword ῌfrom the Reversible Destiny Lofts, Tokyo :
I am Fumi Tsukahara, professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, where I teach history of modern art ῌespecially dadaῌsurrealism῍ and sociology of art ῌsocial aspects of the AvantῌGarde movement῍ at the section of liberal arts and languages. Having passed my youth in Paris at the University of SorbonneῌNouvelle with a French Government Scholarship, I study mainly French Artists, Poets, Thinkers ῌTzara, Breton, Baudrillard, etc῍ in their language. So it would be easier for me to express myself in French than in English, but I will try ! ῌC’est plus facile pour moi de m’exprimer en Français, mais je vais essayer!῍
So, let’s begin.
Welcome to theReversible Destiny Loftsin Tokyo. From this unique architecture created by Arakawa & Gins in ῍ῌῌ῎, that you couldn’t find anywhere else in the world except their Bioscleave House in New York constructed in ῍ῌῌ῏, I will send my message at the occasion of
Trajectory of ARAKAWA Shusaku : FromKanῌOke´ῌCoffin῍to theReversible Destiny Lofts++,
our AG ῏ International Conference online.
The main subject of my lecture is to review Arakawa’s trajectory from his “KanῌOke´” ῌCoffin῍ series in late ῍ΐῐῌ’s and earlyῑῌ’s to the monumentalLoftsat the debut of the῎῍stcentury.
First of all, I have to reconfirm the undeniable fact that Arakawa is considered as one of the foremost artistic figures on the international art scene after the World War II, Pollock, Jasper Johns, Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Cesar, Louise Bourgeois, etc., But now, he does not use the word “artist” for his identification. He says he is a “codenologist”. This neologism signifies a creator who attempts to integrate art, science and philosophy so that he or she could realize their unification. What does it mean?
In order to find an answer to thisaporia: an artist says he is not “ar- tist”, I will try to present a very short survey of the history of modern art from Dada to Neo Dada. For this purpose, I would like to choose as our starting point a small town in northern Romania, Moinesti ῌse- veral hundred miles away from the capital, Bucharest῍.
A Short Survey of the AvantῌGarde Movement from Dada to Neo Dada
Please just have a look at thePhoto No.+I took there in῎ῌῌῒ.
These two signposts have a doub- le meaning for us. First, they an- nounce the Artistic Monument DADA is nearby, and second, after these posts, Rough Road. This is a pure accidental coincidence and not intended at all as double mean- Photo No.ῌ
ing by the Romanian Road Authority, but if you understand these signs as follows : ”Proceed with caution! DADA ahead, and after DADA, Rough Road!”, you could call to your mind the whole history of modern art in the῎ῌth century.
Because, as we will see below, Dadaist revolt against not only tradi- tional art, but art itself has totally changed the “meaning of art”. In this regard, a German art theorist, Peter Bu¨rger said in his Theory of the AvantῌGarde, ῍ΐῐ, that “Dadaism no longer criticizes schools that proceeded it, but criticizes art as an institution.” ῌEnglish translation by Michael Shaw, The University of Minnesota Press,῍῍.
So,why Moinesti? Because this rural town near the Black Sea is the birthplace of Tristan Tzara ῌ῍ῒῌ῍ῒ῏῍. And Tzara was one of the key persons of European AvantῌGardes, who created the DADA move- ment in Zurich, Switzerland, February῍῍ῒ, at the famous Cabaret Vol- taire during the First World War, with Hugo Ball, Hans Arp, Hans Rich- ter, Richard Huelsenbeck, etc. ῌthis historical place has been totally re- newed and reῌopened as a Cafe´ῌBar at the beginning of the ῎῍st Cen- tury῍.
In one of his Dada manifestoes, ῍῍ῒ, Manifeste de Monsieur Anti- pyrine,Tzara screamed, “Dada est notre intensite´!” ῌ“Dada is our Inten- sity!”῍ and in his Manifeste Dada +3+2, he wrote with capital letters,
“DADA NE SIGNIFIE RIEN” ῌ“DADA MEANS NOTHING”῍. We use the English translation by Madame Mary Ann Caws ῌBlack Widow Press,῎ῌῌῑ῍ whose immense contribution to the study of DadaῌSurreal- ism is wellῌknown all over the world.
The “Intensity” and “Meaninglessness” of Tzara were combined in this notorious work of “art” ῌwhich is in reality “antiῌart”῍,
Trajectory of ARAKAWA Shusaku : FromKanῌOke´ῌCoffin῍to theReversible Destiny Lofts++*
“Fontaine / Fountain” ῌPhoto No.,῍ by Mar- cel Duchamp,῍ῑ῍῏. Because, his action of pre- senting the white porcelain urinal at the Art Exhibitionῌeven “Independent”῍ has an unde- niable “intensity”, a risky but, as a result, suc- cessful attack against the fine arts, but this
“thing” ῌan urinal῍ is meaningless except for its ordinary use in the toilet.
So Tzara’s Manifestoes and Duchamp’s uri- nal stand before us even now as if they were that black monolith appeared in the first scene of Kubrick’s movie, ,**+A Space Odyssey ῌ῍ῑ῎ῐ῍.
After this “Big Bang”, the modern art had to pass through Rough Road for several decades, political revolutions, totalitarianisms, big wars, at the end of which the modern art has found its new name
“Pop Art” and has arrived to a new stage named “consumer society”
where everything has become sign in the sense that Saussure defined in his Cours de linguistique ge´ne´rale, ῍ῑ῍῎ ῌposthumous publication῍. Jean Baudrillard, a French sociologist and my old friend passed away three years ago in Paris at the age of῏῏, mentioned in hisConsumer So- ciety ῌLa socie´te´de consommation, ses mythes, ses structures,῍ῑ῏ῌ῍ as fol- lows.
Everyday objects ῌe.g. a porcelain urinal, etc.῍ “have been frag- mented” ῌby Cubism῍, and “having celebrated their parodic resurrec- tion in Dada and Surrealism, they are apparently now reconciled again with their image in neoῌfiguration and pop art” ῌEnglish transla- tion by Chris Turner, Sage Publications, UK,῍ῑῑῐ῍.
Photo No.ῌ
And here again, in late῏ῌ’s and early ῐῌ’s, the revolt has occurred worldῌwide against the commercialized Pop Art by Neo Dada. The situa- tion was rather contradictory because Neo Dada members in the USA were mainly Pop Artists, but we couldn’t get into this subject in this lec- ture.
From KanῌOke´ῌCoffin῍ to the Reversible Destiny Lofts via Mechanism of Meaning
In Japan, the adventure of Neo Dada was very intense but very short. April ῍ῒῐῌ in Tokyo, young artists gathered to create a new group “Neo Dada Organizer”, among them, Shinohara, Yoshimura and our Arakawa, and they realized the first Neo Dada Exhibition, and at- tracted a great deal of attention of journalists. After this historical event, Arakawa exhibited his “KanῌOke´” ῌCoffins῍ in January ῍ῒῐ῍
ῌPhoto No.-shows his monumental work,Einstein pinched between anti ῌbiotic substance and consonant,totally restored by Arakawa himself in
῎ῌῌῑ῍. So called because it was a large mass of heavy cement whose form reminds us the shape of a dead ῌfossilized῍ fetus laid on a pur- ple velvet in the wood box like a coffin.
Like their predecessors in the western world, Japanese Neo Dada attacked vio- lently morals of the contemporary society.
They pissed in the exhibition room and walked along the Ginza Streetῌthe ῏thAve- nue in Tokyo῍ with bandage all over their bodies, etc. As we could imagine, that kind of events were not allowed to continue for
a long time, and ended in a few months. Photo No.ῌ Trajectory of ARAKAWA Shusaku : FromKanῌOke´ῌCoffin῍to theReversible Destiny Lofts+*2
The main reason for the disorganization of Neo Dada was the breakup of group members, and as Arakawa hated that kind of discord, he made up his mind to go to New York to find a New World for his
“Art” ῌbecause at that time, he still considered himself as an “artist”῍. December῍ῐ῎῍, Arakawa arrived at New York City, with a letter of recommendation to Marcel Duchamp prepared by Shuzo Takiguchi, one of the greatest Japanese critics of the Modern Art after the World War II. After meeting Duchamp and, next year, Madeline Gins ῌwhom he married soon after and never separated῍, his long process to theRe- versible Destiny Loftshas begun.
We have to skip episodes ofDiagrams,perhaps the last effort of the
“artist” Arakawa in a narrow sense of the term, to approach theMecha- nism of Meaningof Arakawa and Gins in῍ῐ῏ῌ’s. For, it is this monumen- tal work that has made Arakawa feel and behave different from the other artists of his time and that has presented Arakawa and Gins to the public as pioneer of the study and practice of “To Not to Die”
ῌthey entitled their exposition at the Museum of Guggenheim, Soho,
῍ῐῐ῏,We have decided not to die῍.
Didn’t they write in the preface of the second edition of theMecha- nism of Meaning like this? “Death is old fashioned. We had come to think this way, strangely enough. Essentially, the human condition re- mains prehistoric as long as such a change from the Given, a distinc- tion as fundamental as this, has not yet been firmly established.”
So, what is the “Mechanism of Meaning”? Here we have to look back again Dada’s Intensity and Meaninglessness, because these con- cepts were somehow desperate efforts to challenge “the human condi- tion” that requires everything that exists should have its proper mean-
ing. Dada considered Meaninglessness as a necessary condition for art to have Intensity, but in this case, art wouldn’t be “art” any more.
This prehistory of the AvantῌGarde may have had a strong impact to the attempt of Arakawa & Gins, because they noticed that “mean- ing might be thought of as […] the recognition of nonsense.” ῌ“Pre- face”, cited above῍
And with this recognition begins the great transition from Art to AntiῌArt, from Death to Life, in a sense that once the pieces of Art ῌeven Dada’s and Neo Dada’s !῍ have been gathered in Museums de- fined as masterῌpieces, they would be nothing but like Dead Bodies in the huge coffins. And only the tentative of AntiῌArt ῌQuest for Inten- sity and Meaninglessness῍ could reverse the situation. ῌWe use the word “Meaninglessness” for “Nonsense”, because the latter may be un- derstood as “absurdity” which has the specific “meaning” of existential- ism.῍ From this point of view, the Reversible Destiny Lofts would al- ready have come into sight.
After the worldῌwide success ofMechanism of Meaningin῍ῒῑῌ’s ῌGer- man Novel Prize Physicist, Werner Heisenberg highly appreciated this work῍, “Death is old fashioned” has become the beaconῌwords to lead the “Work in Progress” of Arakawa and Gins for several decades. And, in autumn῍ῒῒῐ, in a small town of Yoro ῌGifu prefecture῍,῏ῌῌkilome- ters west of Tokyo, Arakawa & Gins created a kind of theme park, the Site of Reversible Destiny,an elliptical site of ῎ acres with a dozen of ori- ginal architectures where visitors can feel their sense of everyday life changing by going through a dark tunnel without light or trying to en- ter into a cabin whose door cannot be opened, and so on.
As the experience of this site is limited at most for several hours, visi- Trajectory of ARAKAWA Shusaku : FromKanῌOke´ῌCoffin῍to theReversible Destiny Lofts+*0
tors have to return to their ordi- nary life and their “Destiny” could- n’t be reversed, Arakawa & Gins in- tended to extend their attempt to more exhaustive dimension and de- cided to build a dwelling where one can live every day for lifetime.
In῎ῌῌῑin Mitaka city, Tokyo, theReversible Destiny Lofts in Memory of Helen Keller,where I am talking now, was completed. ῌPhoto No.ῐ῍ In this manifold, multicolored architecture whose floors are undulant, with a spherical shaped room, a circular tatami room, etc., a truly excit- ing experiment has just begun to reverse the flow of human life from birth to death. A French Philosopher, JeanῌFrançois Lyotard ῌ῍῎ῐῌ
῍ΐ῍ wrote to his oid friends, Arakawa & Gins at the occasion of their Exhibition at Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York in ῍ῒ,
“Could the body be younger at sixty years of age than at fifteen?”
Lyotard couldn’t survive to see the creation of theLofts,but this ar- chitecture seems to us as the answer of Arakawa & Gins to Lyotard’s question. In this point of view, when we look back these fetusῌshaped objects called “KanῌOke´ ῌCoffin῍ series” Arakawa created five decades ago, we might think that these “fetuses” were not dead but asleep for a long time and that they are now going to awake to tell us
“Death is old fashioned”. ῌThe restored “KanῌOke´” is exhibited at the Osaka National Museum.῍
In conclusion, I would like to remind you, dear audience of AG ῏, the declaration of our great Dadaist, Tristan Tzara in Zurich, ῍῍:
Photo No.ῌ
”L’art s’endort pour la naissance du monde nouveau ῌThe art is sleep- ing waiting for the birth of the New World῍. ” Almost a century pas- sed since then, and now in theReversible Destiny Lofts,I really feet some- thing unprecedented has come into existence. Is the new art going to be awaken, the New World born in order to reverse the Destiny? This is the most important problem we are now trying to find a solution th- rough the persistent approach to the works and thoughts of Arakawa
& Gins.
I hope the AG ῏ Conference online will be a significant step to this goal.
Note of the Author : This article is based on my lecture at the Rever- sible Destiny Lofts, Mitaka City, Tokyo, February,*+* as a participation to the Third International Arakawa and Gins Conference ῌAG-῍ online, coordinated by Griffith University, Australia ῌMarch ,*+*῍. I appreciate deeply Ms. Momoyo Honma, Director of the Architectural Body Research Foundation’s Tokyo Office, whose kindness has enabled me to use the Lofts for the video recording of my lecture, as well as Dr. Jondi Keane, Sen- ior Lecturer at Griffith University, whose devoted effort has realized admi- rably the project of AG - online. At that time, who could have imagined the sudden passing of Arakawa in May ,*+*, who has decided categori- cally “not to die”? I would like to dedicate this short essay in memory of our ARAKAWA, who will “never die” in a conventional sense of this “old- fashioned” word ῌNovember,*+*, Tokyo῍.
Photo No. ῍ : Signposts in Moinesti, Romania,῎ῌῌῐ.
Photo No. ῎ : Duchamp’Fountain ῌPhiladelphia Museum of Art,῎ῌῌῑ῍. Trajectory of ARAKAWA Shusaku : FromKanῌOke´ῌCoffin῍to theReversible Destiny Lofts+*.
Photo No. ῏ : Arakawa’sKan῍Oke´ῌrestored in῎ῌῌῒ῍.
Photo No. ῐ :Reversible Destiny Lofts ῌMitaka City, Tokyo,῎ῌῌῑ῍. ῌAll these photos were taken by Professor Fumi Tsukahara.
Document: Quotation from THE MECHANISM OF MEANING NEWS pub- lished by Arakawa and Gins, date unknown, probably in ῍ΐῒῒ. ῌThis NEWS was offered to me by Arakawa himself in his letter from New York City, November -rd,+33-.῍
DEATH IS DYING!
DEATH IS DEAD!
Death is old῍fashioned
Death is old-fashioned, leading scientists, and even people who are not scientists, concur. Essentially, the human condition remains prehis- toric as long as death is with us. Death must die, and only death and not much else, for thus far almost everything else that has to already has.
Species to get a new start
Amazingly but rightly, the construction of a place which can be used by human sensibility actively to evolve itself has received official sanc- tion. With this, a way will be provided for a speciesῌthis speciesῌto re- consider and rework prevailing conditions as to direct its own evolv- ing.
